MONEY MORAL DILEMMA: Would you report him to the police?

suzithefloozy

I wouldn't report him because he is a mate, but I probably wouldn't need to anyway as I'd imagine they had it on camera and would have already notified the police.

I don't agree with the fuel prices being as high as they are, but I'd imagine the stations themselves e.g. shell and texaco aren't the ones making the most profit out of fuel, but they would be most hurt by people stealing it as they still have to pay their supplier for it. All this is said with the exception of BP of course, who charge at least 2p/litre more than everyone else for the same fuel - maybe now there's a slight idea as to where their reported £3.5 bn profit came from! Needless to say I don't get fuel from BP

bobass

I would not wish to be friends with some folk on here!

Of course I would not report him - he is a friend.

Friends are people who you should support, not kick while they are down.

I'm not condoning stealing, and would advise him against doing the same again - but at the same time, it's not like he has physically or mentally damaged another human, or put any lives at risk.

redwoodmazza

As said previously, it's very likely that the filling station captured his vehicle registration details. He would then be contacted and given video evidence etc, I suspect. However, if he was ALSO driving without tax and insuance, I could NOT condone that as the risk to someone else suffering finacial loss in the case of an accident is totally unjust.
:T

redwoodmazza

Just a quick thought, I have been sent an email doing the rounds suggesting that everyone should boycott Esso and BP filling stations in an effort to force them to lower prices. What do you reckon?
I already purchase from Tesco to get Clubcard points.
So, what about a boycott of Esso and BP?

Pound

I would probably encourage him to call the petrol station and let them know he forgot to pay. That way he's done the right thing and also avoids any possible knocks on the door from the police.

I used to work in a petrol station and management tried very hard to make employees scapegoats for the fuel thefts. e.g. they'd try to suggest that we shouldn't have switched the pump on for that person.

SomethingWitty_2

As others have said, reporting him would achieve little, if anything i would hope he didnt get caught by CCTV. In the question you frame this as an act of desperation, i.e. he felt this was the only way he could get by. Reporting him, giving him a stern telling off, being angry/off/morally righteous achieves nothing- you cannot see every crime in a right/wrong binary -some, like this, are acts of desperation. He shouldnt do it of course, but the way to make him not do it again is to explain to him the risks involved and point him, as others said, to sites like this which have given many people hope and options when money has seemed tight and options limited. There is no way stealing is acceptable, the act itself may well be wrong, but the reasons behind it are a little more complex in this case- showing someone why they don't need to do this, helping them out with advice from places like this, and just giving them an air of support so they don't feel trapped in financial ruin prevents things like this from happening

EDIT: The above idea of calling the petrol station is a great one too, hopefully theyd be understanding enough to "let him off" if he coughed up though

Glowboy

redwoodmazza wrote: »

Just a quick thought, I have been sent an email doing the rounds suggesting that everyone should boycott Esso and BP filling stations in an effort to force them to lower prices. What do you reckon?
I already purchase from Tesco to get Clubcard points.
So, what about a boycott of Esso and BP?

This has been suggested before and wouldn't work. There's a link to a thread on this subject in my thanked posts, if you're interested.

Lenfo

Pound wrote: »

I would probably encourage him to call the petrol station and let them know he forgot to pay. That way he's done the right thing and also avoids any possible knocks on the door from the police.

I can't believe that would work. Would they really believe he "forgot to pay" (yeah right) and say "oh well never mind pay us next time you're passing"? I imagine they'd take his phone number/get the police to trace the call and prosecute him as hard as they can. Its not like he accidentally wandered out with a 40p newspaper under his arm.

That said, I wouldn't dob him in, but I'd tell him that if I found he'd done it a second time and it became a habit I couldn't turn a blind eye.

tazical

I'd definitely report him to the police. I own a business myself, and work ridiculously hard to keep it going. Why on earth should this guy decide that he can take someone else's property just because he's hard up? Should I just let people walk into my shop and shoplift anything they like just because they don't have the money? I'm sick and tired of working so hard just for people to take advantage of me (and that includes you too, Gordon Brown...)

Quite frankly, if this guy thinks that stealing is an okay thing to do then I wouldn't want him as a friend anyway!

wurlitzerwilly

Pound wrote: »

End of the line petrol retailers only make a few pence per litre sold. A drive off can have a big impact on their profits.

I disagree. I don't believe that the petrol retailers make as little profit as they say, any more than I believe anything that *any* politician tells me, or that there is a problem with global warming caused by humans. It's all 'bandwaggon jumping'.
I receive a report on the prices charged by petrol stations on a regular basis, and I can watch the the trends, particularly between Tesco and Sainsbury, as each one daily climbs the price rise ladder, one after the other, whilst claiming that there's no cartel.
Companies like Tesco and Sainsbury are not in the business of making 'small profits', neither do I believe that it's a loss leader, people would buy groceries even if they had to go elsewhere for petrol.